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This was my 2nd opportunity to enjoy the M&H tour in Haverhill, MA. Special thanks to Kirk and Gary Burgett and all others at M&H who assisted in providing this exclusive opportunity to PW members and their guests.

Bruce Clark, M&H piano engineer, provided another excellent guided tour. Bruce shared with us an abundance of piano mfg knowledge providing a very detailed tour from rim bending up to the final testing; thoughout all 6 floors Bruce described in detail all the specifics necessary to produce the fine quality pianos that M&H is known for.

Cecil Ramirez, sales mgr west coast, joined in making us feel welcomed and answering any and all questions. So nice to see you once again, Cecil and to hear your rendition of, STWOM.. live!!

As always a wonderful time to gather with members. I am getting so spoiled by the multiple gatherings. As soon as one gathering is finished, I'm left wondering how soon will I have to wait for another!!

PW members in attendance and many with guests included; Frank Baxter, our fearless leader, Axtremus, Leebea, Jeffo, Lilylady, Rustyfingers, A441, JazzManToo, Chris Aher, and special appearance by a lovely young couple who traveled from MI to join us. It was a pleasure to meet you, Rachel and Brad (aka bklaty). I hope that you enjoy the rest of your time in the area and that you have a safe arrival home.

So, on with a few pictures...

Bridge notching craftsman

Lilylady (aka Roberta) w/Kirk Burgett.. possibly this could be the beginning of a fantasy piano for Lilylady!!Rache/Brad (far left) aka bklaty joining us from MI

AAAAHHHhhhhhh! Lunchtime!!

A high polished instrument and performer; A441/Jeremy and Roberta (guest)

Terry, nice summary and nice job with the pics. I would like to extend my thanks to M & H to graciously open their doors to us. In my many years of manufacturing, I have never seen a company that conducted a factory tour like M&H. It was "top shelf". Frank, thanks for setting it up. And it was a pleasure to meet again, members that we met two weeks ago, and also some new ones, like Rachel and Brad from MI. I'll post a few photos tomorrow.Lee

Very Classy Operation - from the greeting at the door, introduction of both owners, Gary and Kirk Burgett, staff, and even a gentleman who started work for them 58 years ago; to the close when Cecil Rameriz and JazzManToo jammed, and DVD's, pins and pens were distributed!

MH is located in a wonderful old brick factory building in Haverhill. Inside walls brick with high ceilings and the largest beams I think I have seen. Clean.

It takes 6 floors with many stations to create their grands. Excellent craftsmen at each station.

MH are 'hand crafted' pianos. I hope Terry posts a pic of one kneeling on top of a piano while he chiseled.

Bruce Clark designed several needed equipment pieces which help create or put together parts of the piano. All for efficiency.

100 yr old MH frames still in operation. Many layers of hard maple go into the rims. They make an inner and outer rim.

The Soundboard is thin. I really had no idea what a soundboard looked like. I was surprised at how thin it was. Eastern Spruce being used by MH after testing several other woods.

Action is made right there. MANY stations. A whole floor! More women were seen at these stations. They buy in some parts but refigure them to their specs. Regulation stations as well.

Black keys also come with black tops and brown sides. Very classy. Saw two finished pianos with these in the display room.

Ebony pianos do not have ebony veneer.

Their Uprights are not completed in the Haverhill factory, but in California. Their production will go from 26 in 2004 to hopefully 75-100 in 2005.

I disappeared to the display room towards the end. (Bad knees) It was really a good excuse to play both 9 ft grands (CC's). Both had a different tone and action. They made 'me' even sound like a pianist!!! Later, I also played the rosewood BB1 (7ft) with the brown keys. I drooled!!! Not that I have room, and besides it was sold. But it did have a wonderful sound and touch. Like 'welcome home'. This is what a grand should sound like. Rich.

We got DVD's of the factory tour. I wonder if you could order one. ???

It was a great day. Thank you Frank B for getting us together. Thank you to all at Mason and Hamlin for sharing your craft with us. It was much appreciated.

They are first class all the way!

Roberta

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"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything."

I watched the production team members as our group descended on their work areas. Each one of them quietly stepped back to give us room, and stood to one side, smiling with obvious pride.

Lunch was perfect, plenty of good food and refreshments. And we had the opportunity to walk some of it off afterwards during the second half of our tour. Judging by my ample tummy, I should have done more walking and less eating:-)

Sounds like they have even more good things planned for the future (I don't want to speculate here, that's how rumors start).

I'm sorry some of our members had to drop out at the last minute, particularly those dealing with illness. Please email me if you would like to be part of next year's tour. Yes, we plan on making this a yearly event for the Piano Forums.

I didn't take many pictures, so I'm hoping the others will continue to post.Speaking of pictures, I would prefer you use our uploader and let us host the pictures.This prevents them from disappearing if something happens to your host, or you change hosts.

I did try to catch a picture of the gentleman hand-notching the bridges. Unfortunately you can't really see him, but you can see that he had the rapt attention of our tour group.

Many thanks to the entire Mason & Hamlin team for making us feel so welcomed, and to our members and guests for sharing it all with us.

WOW, what a tour! I have been on lots of factory tours and this was absolutly the best factory tour I have ever taken. I brought my Mother as my guest and what a wonderful Mothers day gift it was for her to enjoy "A Piano Day" learning how a Mason and Hamlin piano is manufacuted with #1 son. Thank you Mason and Hamlin and Frank for a wonderful day.

Sounds like a very excited/passionate group of people visiting another very fine boutique manufacture. I hope I can save up some frequent flier miles and vacation days and visit MH as well next year. Most interesting to me would actually be a visit to a high volume factory that also claims to be a handbuild process.

What a day, what a day!!!! It just gets better and better every time we go (third trip for Ed Bonacci and myself, the first being on "9/11" if you can imagine that. Kirk & Gary Burgett, you are a joy to be with----many thanks. Cecil, what can I say---a rare chance to play a duet with such a talented guy and on two fabulous Mason & Hamlin (CC) concert grands. Cecil, I hope we can do it again!! Many thanks! Thanks so much Frank for setting this up and for the chance to see some of our wonderful PW members and also to meet some new folks.Can't wait to see some more pics. Jeremy Gloo (A441)

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A441 New piano sales from 1947 to 1973. Owned music store 1959 to 1973. Sold Mason&Hamlin, Knabe, Chickering, George Steck. Full time piano technician since 1973.

Thanks Terrytunes for the kind words. Great to see you and Steve again.Axtremus you were just great as always. Always special.Thanks to Paul Monachino for giving me some of his M&H history that he has compiled. Paul was at Aeolian in East Rochester when we were a Mason & Hamlin dealer so we knew many of the same people that were there during that period.

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A441 New piano sales from 1947 to 1973. Owned music store 1959 to 1973. Sold Mason&Hamlin, Knabe, Chickering, George Steck. Full time piano technician since 1973.

What a thrilling day. Even when it was over my head, I was delighted to be among people who so obviously care about what they do.

My thanks as well to Frank, the Burgetts, Cecil and the management and workers at the plant who made us feel so welcome.

I was again inspired by the talent of forum members making the showroom pianos sing and thunder, including Cecil, Axtremus, Lilylady, Terrytunes, Frank, JazzManToo, A441, and even non-player Brian! I also enjoyed surreptitiously listening to the rest of you play during the free-for-all that followed.

I took way too many pictures, but here are some to share. My apologies if I got some of the names wrong. Please do correct me, and I'll edit accordingly.

After navigating stairs or the freight elevator big enough for two concert grands to the 6th floor, we began with introductions.

Here's Bruce again with M&H's Quality Assurance Manager and official company historian, Paul Monachino. Paul knows more than most of us will ever forget about piano making history, to butcher a cliche. That's EVP Tom Lagomarsino on the right.

Here's Terrytunes:

And Leebea with an impressive audience of managers behind!

Lilylady brought a wonderful old M&H poster to share. (Didn't get a picture.) Picture of lovely lilylady removed upon request.

More pix on next post.

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If I had ever learnt, I should have been a great proficient.

Oh, Jeremy, thanks for the reminder of Paul Monachino's name. HE is the one I mentioned in my post as the 58 yr veteran with MH. What stories he has! He told us about the beginning of his career. Had to start at the bottom. With uprights, low end job. Then work himself up to more challenging jobs. Then when they finally set him up on grands, he again, had to start on the bottom rung and work his way up. Learned every part of piano building that way. The guy knows how to make hammers. From the inside and then layering. And then installing! (I bet this was cold pressed too, but forgot to ask)

Frank...I think Terrytunes has a pic of the artisan hand chiseling the bridges. I was most impressed with him. And after we left, he jumped up on the piano (as it was) and continued, so I asked her to take his pic. Dedication!

I-Husband (I find that hard to write out)I hope you do come. I remember numbers mentioned, like 6-7 a week. With many employees, stations and quality control. It was amazing how efficient they were, but that is what they are striving for. I remember Bruce saying something like - if we make it easier for them to do it right, they will. The quality will be there.

Roberta, one of those nervous reluctant players who just couldn't keep her fingers off the MH!

PS - And Cecil...NO, I really don't have room for a grand!!!

_________________________
"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything."

Let me add my thanks to Frank for setting up the tour, to the Burgetts for having us, and to the employees of M&H who made us feel so welcome. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire day. They make truly wonderful instruments. Do you think we can go back next week?

Many thanks to all, especially the photographers! We can all experience vicariously your tour and see some of the factory tho we are too far away to join the tour. I'm sure this was one interesting and enjoyable day!

First of all, Iíd like to thank Kurt & Gary Burkett, Cecil, Jamie, Paul, Tom and particularly Bruce for the excellent and very detailed view into the production of the Mason & Hamlin pianos. I would also like to than Frank for arranging this tour.

Some observations:

First, the pianos; the two new CC models that we were shone were as fine examples of a tier one concert grand as Iíve ever seen. The pieces Axtremus chose demonstrated the full tonal range from ppp to FFF. The tone was full and very rich across the entire range without breaking up and getting harsh at the top volume level or getting muffled in the soft passages. These are world class instruments fully capable of competing on the concert stage.

As for the tour itself, Bruce gave a most detailed and complete tour of the entire production process. He explained each step in detail and went into the whys and wherefores. For instance, he made an excellent, detailed case for using inner/outer rim production method as opposed to the single rim method used by their competition. My son, a mechanical engineering student who knew very little about pianos (at the start of the tour, anyway) gained a very valuable insight into the process design engineering and the reasons for the choices made in a real world factory production situation. The use of sophisticated CNC equipment in combination with very old fashioned craftsmanship was particularly interesting. The CNC was not there to save time or money. It was there to provide precision in the areas that the tolerances were critical. This is what CNC does best. Operations that are better done by hand, such as setting the bearing and notching the bridges, are done the old fashioned way. This minimizes the accumulation of minor tolerance errors to levels that donít compromise the overall quality of the finished instrument. Bruce also showed us a minor innovation that makes the actions more responsive. He credited Dave Stanwood with the innovation, which is to use especially finished aluminum capstans instead of brass ones. These have less than half of the mass, thereby allowing significantly less key leading. This decreases the inertia of the key action, making it feel more responsive. The result is quite noticeable.

All in all, it is obvious to me that M&H is a first class operation. Thanks again to everyone at M&H and to Frank.

Our group had moved on to the next section but Lilylady looked back and noticed the craftsman doing bridge notching had changed his position. I thought this photo captured the art of perfection!

Bruce displaying the rosewood/ebony key

Cecil ~ entertaining us to his delightful arrangement of Someone to Watch Over Me(Cecil graciously posted a recording of this song in the Members Recording forum after it had been requested by a certain member!!)